# Ptolemy: Geography [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [MINIATURIST, Italian]() - Date: 1451-1500 - Technique: Manuscript \(Gr. Z. 388\) ## Commentary Ptolemy: Geography c. 1453 Manuscript \(Gr. Z. 388\) Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, Venice This de luxe copy of Ptolemy's Geography belonged to Basilios Bessarion \(1403-1472\), a Roman Catholic Cardinal Bishop and the titular Latin Patriarch of Constantinople, was one of the illustrious Greek scholars who contributed to the great revival of letters in the 15th century. His library was considered the finest Greek library in the world. The text of the manuscript is furnished with a map of the world, followed by 26 further maps. The last of the flyleaves preceding the text, folio VIv shown here, is occupied by a large miniature set within an elegant frame of red and blue volutes. It shows Ptolemy, wearing a crown and a rich brocade garment bordered with ermine, as he takes measurements with an astrolabe. This miniature was executed in Bologna where Bessarion was papal legate in the early 1450s. ## Related artworks - [Alessandro Cortesi: Poem]() - [Antiphonary]() - [Antiphonary]() - [Antiphonary]() - [Antiphoner]() - [Antiphoner]() - [Aristotle: Nicomachean Ethics]() - [Aristotle: Nicomachean Ethics]() - [Armiranda]() - [Aulus Gellius: Noctes Atticae]() - [Averulino: On the Architecture]() - [Baldo Martorelli: Grammar]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()